Mixed Signals
by SereneCalamity
Summary: They were together...Right? Clace. OneShot.


_I've had this idea for this kind of story for a really long time, like from different peoples points of view. It didn't come out as well as I wanted, but hopefully you guys still enjoy it!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters._

Simon

Simon Lewis was pretty much a loner, until his last year of school. He never felt alone though, he always had his comics, and his buddies online. He was different than most other people at his school, and he said he was fine with that. Sometimes his eyes lingered a little bit longer when he heard a group of people laughing and when he saw the boys in his year slapping palms and whispering inside jokes, but he told himself that it's not like he would fit in with them anyway.

It wasn't until his second to last year that he met someone who got him.

Clarissa Fray had always gone to school with him, but she was never someone that Simon thought he would ever be friends with. That was because she was from a group of people that he tried to avoid because he didn't understand them and if he had to be honest, they kind of scared him. _Everyone_ in the school knew their group, and lots of people wanted their attention, but they kept to themselves.

She was this tiny little fireball. She had a sharp tongue and she was constantly getting in trouble in class for talking back to the teachers. She always had paint on her fingers or on her skin, and it was actually rather endearing when you got past the angry eyes and the heavy black make up. Simon originally thought she was just a bitch, and snappy, but when they got paired together in Physics, and he got to know her, and he was surprised by how much he liked her.

There was Isabelle Lightwood, the pretty, unattainable girl. She sort of walked around like there was a bad small under her nose, her six inch heels putting her above everyone else. But she wasn't all looks, she was smart as hell. She never seemed to be paying attention in class, studying her nails or twirling her hair around her finger, but she was always in the top five percent of the class. It was strange, because ever since he started to become friends with Clary, she started paying attention to him. She would sit by him in class, and casually ask him if he'd seen any good movies lately. He had to admit, he was pretty damn mesmerized by her.

Then there was Alec Lightwood, her brother, who had this perpetually angry look on his face. If Simon had to think really hard about it, he was pretty sure he had never seen a smile on the twin brothers face. He just sort of stood there, or sat—depending on the circumstances—in his leather jacket and his motorbike boots, looking all scary and intimidating. Simon had heard rumours around the school that Alec was actually, which he wouldn't have a problem with, although he hadn't really seen anything to support the theory.

And then there was Jace Herondale, or the leader of the pack, if there had to be one. He always smelt like cigarettes and gasoline, wore a leather jacket and had two earrings in one of his ears. He sat at the back of classrooms and seemed to fall asleep most of the time. He didn't seem to really care about anything or anyone, except for the other three that he hung out with, and especially Clary.

There was lots of talk about them.

Jace and Clary, Clary and Jace.

Simon didn't get dragged into gossip as much as other people, although the more he hung out with them, the more curious he became about the two.

Magnus

Magnus Bane had been dating Alec for almost a year now, although he wasn't really part of the Famous Four. He was okay with that, because he had his own friends, and Alec, Isabelle, Jace and Clary had their own sort of language amongst themselves, they. Although more recently, it seemed as though the scrawny kid from their year, Simon Lewis, was getting closer to Clary. From what Magnus could tell, the kid also seemed to have a thing for Isabelle, although the pretty girl hadn't seemed to pick up on that yet.

Their relationship wasn't public, but Magnus didn't mind. While he was out and proud about it, Alec was a bit more conservative. His friends knew that they were together, and his parents knew, and to be honest, that's all that Magnus cared about. Sometimes they would have lunch together at school, but no one dared to ask Alec if there was something more going on than just friendship between them.

His boyfriend was scary like that.

Apart from Alec, there was Isabelle, who acted as though he was part of the Lightwood family, and he was just one of her brothers. She mocked him about the time that he spent doing his hair each day, although she did always say it looked good once he was done. Despite what people thought, Isabelle was a sweetheart, which is probably what the new kid Simon was thinking now that he was getting to know her.

The other half of the foursome was Jace and Clary.

Clary and Jace.

He knew the four better than almost everyone, but he still had the same question that the rest of the school had.

Were they together?

While the four of them were best friends, there was something about Jace and Clary that put them apart. They were just always in sync with each other, as though they could read each others minds and anticipate one anothers movements before they happened.

Before he had started going out with Alec, he had thought what everyone else did—Jace and Clary were dating. Even back when they were sixteen years old, their school mates were fascinated by them. Jace got a motorbike for his birthday, and Clary was the first girl in school to get her nose pierced and a tattoo on her ankle.

They never really did anything specific that made them look like a couple—there was no hand holding of kissing or moony eyed looks—but there was just this energy when they were together.

Once Magnus actually started seeing Alec, he was even more confused, because he actually second guessed whether they _were_ together or not. He thought that even if they didn't outwardly express that they were a couple in public, that there would be the same sign in private that were together.

They didn't.

When the five of them—or six, when the youngest Lightwood, Max, would join in—were watching a movie or relaxing in someones room or thee lounge, they didn't act like a couple. Clary would sit down next to Isabelle and Jace would sit on the floor. It really made it seem as though everyones assumptions about the pair of them were way off base.

But as time went by, Magnus started noticing the smaller things.

Yes—Jace would sit on the ground while Clary and Isabelle would joke and laugh around on the couch, but Clary's leg would always be pressed against Jace's body. At night, on the weekends when they would sleepover at the Lightwoods in their massive lounge, their heads would be close to one anothers and their hands would briefly overlap and touch when they were all going to say goodnight.

He had actually brought the subject up once, when Jonathon Morgernstern, Clary's older brother, had brought them a couple of bottles of vodka. Alec had rolled his eyes and gone back to playing playstation. Isabelle had just kept on taking selfies of herself and sending them to Simon. Jace and Clary had exchanged long looks, scrunched up their noses in funny expressions and hadn't answered.

They all just left Magnus even more determined to figure out what was going on.

Isabelle

Jace had been around for as long as Isabelle could remember. His father had been her and Alec's fathers boss, and given he was a single father, Maryse Lightwood often offered to babysit Jace. He was like another brother to her, which Isabelle was completely fine with, because she loved her brothers.

Clary had come along in their life just before they finished primary school. Her and Isabelle had got on well, right off the bat, and Isabelle had never looked back. She was funny and smart and despite her tiny stature, she was tough as shit. Alec liked Clary as well, while he usually got irritated by Isabelle's friends.

And then there was Jace. Jace's only experiences with girls had been with Isabelle, who was like his sister, and then the girls at school, who were either stuck in the phase where boys had cooties, or they had their first crushes and were red faced and bumbling.

Clary didn't fit either of those categories.

They were tentative around each other at first, but then Clary had broken her arm when falling off the monkey bars, and Jace had been the first one at her side. He had gone with her to the hospital and kept her company after school when everyone else was outside playing, and she was cooped up inside.

They had been inseparable ever since.

As they got older, there was the transition into teenagers where they wanted to experiment. Isabelle had fooled around with one of Jace friends, Jem Carstairs, and had been left unhappy and unsatisfied when he exploded over her inexperienced hand. She wasn't too sure about her brother—he was handsome, she knew that, and there were often girls hanging around him, especially Seelie Queen. When they were fifteen, Alec had come out to the three of them, looking utterly distraught in the process.

Isabelle had hugged him.

Clary had shrugged and offered him more chips and dip.

Jace had smirked and stated that it wasn't surprising Alec was gay, given how beautiful his best friend, Jace himself, was.

God, Izzy loved her friends.

Jace and Clary had experimented with each other.

They didn't make it obvious—except the initial blushes and side looks, like any other fourteen year old. Most people had no idea that they were ripping each others clothes off when they were behind closed doors. Most people, that was, except Isabelle and Alec, who unfortunately walked in on the pair more than once. Other than that, it was completely fine and didn't impact their friendship.

As the years went on, it got a little more attention from the rest of their school mates.

Jace was one of the most attractive guys in their year, especially when he showed up on his motorbike and his clunky boots and his shaggy golden hair. It nauseated Isabelle the way girls swooned as he walked past. But he was uninterested, and that was picked up on quickly. Clary was just as blasé about the opposite sex, even after Sebastian Verlac's persistent attempts. So people had started wondering if the two of them were together.

Isabelle had wondered it as well, in more than just the biblical sense. If maybe they were actually dating.

She had brought it up with Jace a few times, but he had always shrugged it off and changed the subject. His recent weapon of deflection was Simon. And Isabelle had to admit that she didn't mind that at all. Clary's new friend got on surprisingly well with the lot of them, despite the awkwardness that there had been at the start.

She had to admit—she had a crush.

Clary pretended she was sick of listening to her go on and on about him, but when Isabelle suggested they talk about Jace instead, and Clary had snapped her teeth together.

"You know you're going to need to tell me about whatever the fuck you two are playing at, right?" Isabelle said one night as the girls were falling asleep, sharing Clary's bed.

"Yeah, one day, Iz," Clary hummed out before promptly falling asleep.

Alec

Alec was actually beginning to find the whole witch hunt pretty amusing. However, when it all came crashing down on his boyfriend, sister and his sisters new squeeze, he was probably going to get the blame because Jace and Clary would say that he should have gotten the others under control. In all honesty, he was partly responsible for it, because he was pretty sure that it was _his_ boyfriend who instigated all of this.

Jace was his best friend.

Clary was his sister for all intents and purposes of the word, except by blood.

He really didn't need to know if they were screwing or it they were 'in love' or if all that had finished years ago and they were just friends.

There had been a span of about ten months when they were around fourteen or fifteen when they were practically slobbering over each other anytime they were alone. But that seemed like a phase and one day that was just over.

Despite what both Magnus _and_ Isabelle said, he _did_ notice things and he _did_ know that they had something.

Jace and Clary wouldn't be Jace or Clary without one another.

But Alec also knew that neither of them would ever admit it because they were too fiercely independent. And to be honest, it kind of made him worry that if the other three got their way and managed to force the two to face their feelings, they were going to pull away.

They were coming up to their final exams and college applications were due within the next few weeks. Everyone was flipping out and getting stressed—especially Jace. People who didn't know him didn't realize how hard he actually pushed himself, mainly because he wanted to make something of himself separate from the family business. After school, Jace was pretty much living on a diet of caffeine and cigarettes. Alec was getting worried and he knew Isabelle and Clary were as well. He was working himself up to say something one afternoon when they were all studying at the kitchen table of the Lightwoods when Jace let out a frustrated growl and stormed out of the room. Isabelle and Alec watched him go and then turned their eyes automatically toward Clary. She hadn't even flinched at the commotion, her eyes trained on her text book and humming to the music coming from the radio.

It was about half an hour later that Clary got up from her seat and silently left the room.

Isabelle was clearly bouncing around in her seat, wanting to follow after her, spurred on by Magnus's earlier declaration that they would find out what was going on between the couple before the end of the school year. Alec shot her a narrow eyed look, though, and she stayed in her seat. The pair didn't come back in for a long time and Alec finally relented to Isabelle's puppy dog eyes.

He told himself that it was because if their parents came home and found Clary climbing Jace like a tree on the porch, they would all be grounded.

The siblings walked through the kitchen into the lounge and looked out the backdoor. Jace was the only one visible at first, and they stretched their necks out further and then they saw their red head.

Jace was sitting on the railing around their balcony, facing the backyard, his shoulders slumped forward. Clary was standing in front of him, practically hidden by his body, nestled between his legs with her head resting on his chest. Her fingers were clenching his shirt and his chin was resting on top of her head, his eyes closed.

It actually felt as thought they had interrupted something intimate—a lot more intimate than all those times that the siblings had walked in on them in various states of undress. Isabelle didn't seem to care, her eyes flashing gleefully, but Alec wrapped his arm around her wrist and dragged her back into the house.

"Ooh, they're definitely together," Isabelle concluded in a hushed tone, her fingers flying over the screen, obviously informing their boyfriends of what they had just witnessed outside.

Alec just rolled his eyes.

Jace and Clary

It was kind of plain hilarious, the fact that Magnus, Isabelle and Simon thought they were being subtle in their quest to find out the status of their relationship. It had never seemed like such a big deal before, but about six months ago, it seemed as though their friends had concentrated all of their energy onto the pair. Except Alec, who just looked vaguely interested in the whole affair.

They had never actually established themselves as 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend'. It was more like they started fooling around and they never stopped. Jace had once made the comment that if he ever saw her with another guy, he would knock the boy out. Clary had replied that if she ever saw him with another girl, she would claw the girls eyes out. On the day after her seventeenth birthday, he had told her that he loved her.

She had returned the sentiment.

It wasn't that they wanted to hide their relationship from the world, they definitely hadn't set out with that intention from the start. But it was just easier and simpler to not make things public and open for judgement.

Exams were coming up, only in two days in a matter a fact, was Clary's first one for Physics.

On Monday.

Which made today Saturday.

The day of their senior prom.

The six of them were all going together, although Isabelle had made it damn clear that if Simon didn't buy her a corsage, he was dead to her. Clary was pretty sure that Magnus had been hinting that Alec buy one for him as well, but Alec was dense when it came to that kind of thing. Clary was just happy that Magnus was finally getting his wish to make everything public with Alec. Alec was similar to her and Jace, in regards to keeping thing private and low key. The difference, however, was that Magnus was anything _but_ private and low key. Alec hadn't been so dense not to know _that_ , and he had done the whole dinner and _Sherlock_ marathon before asking to officially be his date to prom.

It was all very cute and nauseating and Clary was very glad that Jace hadn't done anything like that for her.

The morning rolled around and Isabelle, Clary and Magnus were all getting ready at his place while the rest were getting ready at the Lightwoods. It was early afternoon before Jace, Alec and Simon stopped playing playstation and decided they should probably start getting ready.

"I think you might want to slow down there a little," Jace laughed as Simon took a big mouthful from the flask that they were passing between them.

"Sorry," Simon cringed as the liquid burnt down his throat. "It's just, ya know. Big night. Hotel all booked and paid for—"

"Hotel?" Jace blinked down at the nervous boy. "Wait. Have you guys not done 'it' yet?" Simon blushed bright red but Alec's entrance into the room stopped him from needing to answer. Jace sent Simon a smirk before turning to look at himself in the floor length mirror. He was wearing a black suit and tie, paired with a silver button down shirt. He hadn't told Clary that he had brought his shirt to match her dress. The really hadn't talked about tonight, and he figured that they would treat it like everything else.

As it came.

The girls arrived a little after six in a stretch limo, and all posed for the mandatory prom pictures for Maryse and Jocelyn. There had been lots of group photos, especially with the girls. When they started taking couples pictures, Jace gave Clary a sideways look and she just grinned and pulled him to her side, smushing a kiss to his cheek.

They were all relaxed and a few drinks in by the time they piled back into the limo. Clary looked absolutely flawless in her silver and black dress, her hair tumbling down her back and around her shoulders in intricate braids and curls. Jace knew he looked good, but the flash of appreciation in Clary's eyes every time she looked at him made his smile widen.

"You look fucking gorgeous," he muttered in her ear, and she gave him one of those adorable half smiles that was just for him.

The night went by as Clary expected.

Cheesy music, garish decorations and mediocre food.

But she was at a table with her best friends, and they were all happy, albeit a little drunk. There were a few raised eyebrows when Magnus gave Alec a kiss on the mouth when they had first made their entrance, but Isabelle silenced any whispers with her icy glare. Clary was surprised by just how relaxed Alec was, but then at the end of the day, it wasn't as though Alec had been hiding his sexuality or his relationship. He just played things close to the chest.

It was getting near the end of the evening, and the DJ was playing slow songs that had only couples out on the makeshift dance floor. Magnus and Alec had disappeared a suspiciously long time ago, and Isabelle had pushed her seat right up against Simon's, his arm around her shoulders and her head resting contentedly on his shoulder. Clary glanced over at Jace, who had taken off his jacket and loosened his tie just a little.

He still looked devastatingly.

He caught her and gave her a boyish smile. Clary was about to open her mouth to say something when the song changed and her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened. She looked over at the DJ and then swung her eyes back to Jace.

"Did you request this?" She asked.

"Of course," Jace returned. "It's our song _and_ it's our senior prom. I figured if we were going to become cookie cutter normal, we might as well go all the way." Clary's eyebrows pulled together slightly in confusion. "C'mon," he gave her a smirk. "We're not going to see any of these fuckers again. Let's give them something to talk about."

"By conforming to everyone elses normal?" Clary teased him, but she couldn't deny the fluttering in her stomach from the unexpected gesture on his behalf.

"They'll never see it coming," Jace winked at her and held out his hand.

Clary didn't hesitate in taking it and letting him help her to her feet.

He lead them out onto the dance floor, paying no heed to the looks and whispers from their classmates and even a couple of the teachers who were chaperoning. Clary had kicked off her heels earlier when she was dancing with Isabelle, so she was back to being tiny compared to him. Jace slid an arm around her waist and drawing her in close to him. Clary rested her head against his chest, as though it was something that she did in public everyday, and tucking perfectly under his chin. They swayed together, Jace's spare hand twined together with her fingers and folded them over his chest as well.

 _Echo_ by Jason Walker was coming to an end, the music coming to the final chorus and Clary couldn't help but mouth out the lyrics. Jace dropped a kiss to the crown of her head and then nudged her to tilt her head and look up at him. She did, her emerald eyes dancing as she smirked at him. He grinned down at her, playfulness and love shining through his golden eyes.

Then he leaded down, and his lips were covering hers, answering the questions of everyone around them.

 _Let me know what you think!_

 _Reviews make me very happy :)_


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